I just got back from my vacation in North Carolina. I had fun, but unfortunately, I was sick during most of my stay there. I persevered and was able to learn a few things about barbecue during my stops in the mountains.
North Carolina Mountains
I have decided to discuss what I learned there through a series of posts which I will write over the next two weeks. The first little nugget of information which I learned concerns an aspect of the pioneer farm. When settlers in the North Carolina mountains built their farms by clearing tiny lots of forest, it was more complicated than most people are willing to acknowledge. What I mean is that farms today consist of a house, fence, a few barns, and maybe a greenhouse. Farms prior to the industrial revolution, which arguably did not arrive in most parts of the South until after WWII, were much more complex. Farmers could not reliably go to the store to buy products such as meat, pesticides, brooms, and horseshoes. The alternative? Produce them on the farm. For instance, tree branches were tied together for brooms and carved gourds were hung in strategic locations to house birds which ate insects. It was the ultimate use of vertical integration!
The tie in with barbecue becomes relevant when considering the farmers' techniques in producing meat. The meat of choice for farmers was pork. Hogs were cheap to buy, one hog could feed the entire family for awhile, and they did not require a lot of maintenance to keep alive. In fact, for much of the year, a farmer would free his hogs to forage in the woods. He would place a mark on their ears so he could identify them to round them up in the fall. When fall came, he would attempt to find each one of them, place them back in their pen, and prepare to slaughter them. Of course, he would not be able to find all of them, and these hogs would reproduce to the point that many Southern states have thriving feral hog populations.
Foraging saved the farmer money which would have otherwise been used for feed for the hogs. However, it made the hogs' meat tough and stringy. Barbecuing, or placing the meat from a slaughtered hog in the smoke house, made the meat more tender and juicy. It also was one of the best ways to preserve the meat. Keep in mind that there were no refrigerators before the Industrial Revolution. Hence, farmers across the South were contributing to the tradition of barbecuing out of necessity. Is it not impressive how hard working, innovative, and common sense focused our forefathers were?
Old Farm House
Smokehouse
A Cove Cleared for Farming in the Smokey Mountain National Park
Feral Hogs (Likely in Texas)
